Community Engagement and Organic Gardening: Food Security, Community Cohesion and Healthy Food
Contemplative Food Gardening - sfyl.ifas.ufl.edusfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/sarasota-docs/ag/Contemplative...
Transcript of Contemplative Food Gardening - sfyl.ifas.ufl.edusfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/sarasota-docs/ag/Contemplative...
Contemplative Food Gardening:
“FEED Your head”
(Edible Landscaping &
Design)
Robert Kluson
Ag/NR Extension Agent III
UF/IFAS Sarasota County Extension
OUTLINE
Overview & Goals of Contemplative
Food Gardening Presentation Series
Short Review of Contemplative &
Organic Food Gardens
Edible Landscaping
Contemplative Food Gardening
Series Titles
• Introduction
• Feed Your Head (Edible Landscaping & Design)
• Growing Food When People & Place Matter
(FL Climate, Crops and Soils)
• Ancient Traditions (Companion Planting and
Biodynamic Agriculture)
• Sacred Community (Attracting Beneficials)
• Soil Food (Compost & Earthworms)
• Back to the Future (Contemplative Design &
Container Gardening)
Introduction
– Food for your freshest nutrition
– Food for thought
– Food for community benefits
– Food for your soul
Goals for Talks on
Contemplative Food Gardening
Approach of Talks on
Contemplative Food Gardening
• Integrate the concepts of contemplative gardens to edible landscaping, using organic food gardening practices
• Provide background information on the science and principles from agroecology for successful organic food gardening
•
• Offer an opportunity to participate in the setup of a contemplative food garden
• Provide additional educational resources
• A contemplative garden provides an
ambience conducive to examining
issues beyond and/or larger than
oneself in a thoughtful, deliberate,
perhaps religious or mystical way.
Review:
What is Contemplative Gardening?
Gerlach-Spriggs & Healy. The Therapeutic Garden: A Definition.
http://www.asla.org/ppn/Article.aspx?id=25294
• Relief from stress of modern life
• Promoting inner growth and wisdom
• Reflection and synthesis of
knowledge
• Exploration and mindfulness
• Source of inspiration
Why Do Contemplative Gardening?
Images of Contemplative Gardens
Cultivating a wide diversity of edibles including
vegetables, fruits, herbs flowers, etc.
Review:
What is Food Gardening?
Review:
What Is Organic Food Gardening?
Organic Food Gardening
• It’s a science and art
• Incorporates the entire landscape design
and environment, e.g., to improve and
maximize the garden soil's health,
structure, & texture
• Maximizes the production and health of
developing plants without using synthetic
commercial fertilizers, pesticides, or
fungicides David Knauft, Horticulture Department, Univ. of GA
www.caes.uga.edu/extension/clarke/anr/documents/Organicgardening.pdf
What is Different About
Organic Food Gardening?
– Message in the value of
biodiversity for the function of
the ecosystem
– These teachings served as
foundation in land ethics for
many applications
• Incorporates a Systems Level Approach to
Management and Design of the Agroecosystem
• Consider a message from excerpt from Sand
County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (1949)
Aldo Leopold
“Thinking Like A Mountain”
“A deep chesty bawl echoes
from rimrock to rimrock, rolls
down the mountain, and fades
into the far blackness of the
night.
It is an outburst of wild defiant
sorrow, and of contempt for all
the adversities of the world.
Every living thing (and perhaps
many a dead one as well) pays
heed to that call.”
“Thinking Like A Mountain”
“To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all
flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight
scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the
coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to
the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank, to
the hunter a challenge of fang against bullet.
Yet behind these obvious and immediate
hopes and fears there lies a deeper
meaning, known only to the mountain itself.
Only the mountain has lived long enough to
listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.” http://www.eco-action.org/dt/thinking.html
“Thinking Like A
Mountain” - Aldo Leopold
• Message = Wolf – Deer – Forest dynamics &
inter-relationships are critical for ecosystem
function !
• Similar message in the value of biodiversity
applies to organic food gardening too !
The thoughtful arrangement of edible plants in the landscape
into a unified, functional biological whole to maximize their
aesthetic appeal and food production.
Treating Edibles as Ornamentals
What is Edible Landscaping?
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Best of both worlds – edible &
ornamental
Inter-planting reduces pests
New textures, forms, colors
Grow what you like best
Fun for kids
Responsible water use
Great conversation piece
Why Do Edible Landscaping?
Any Landscape Can Become
an Edible Landscape
• Choose for appropriate size
• Plant what you like to eat
• Choose for desired maintenance level
• Select appropriate varieties of edibles
Edible Landscape
Homestead Level Example
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Edible Landscape Design Approach
Edible Landscape
Plant Growth Requirements
• Light
• Support
• Nutrients
• Temperature
• Water
• Seasonality
Kale
Leaf
lettuces
Chard
Design Element: Color
Beans &
peas on
trellis for
height
Strawberry
for
groundcover
Design Element Examples
Squash
for size and
form
Basil
colors &
flavors
Sage
texture &
colors
Thyme aromas &
flavors
Design Elements with Herbs
Design Element: Edible Flowers
Edible Landscape Design Example
http://www.slideshare.net/UMNfruit/edible-landscaping
Edible Landscape Design Examples
Edible Landscape Installation Example
Food For Beauty And Nourishment
Contemplative Garden
Design Elements
• Clarity
• Complexity
• Mystery
• Refuge
http://www.gardenguides.com/663-contemplation-gardens.html
Properties for the “rooms” in your garden:
Contemplative Garden
Design Elements: Clarity
The area is not confusing to those looking at it. It
has, first of all, clarity of purpose
Threshold – a clear entry Border and pathway
Contemplative Garden
Design Elements: Complexity
There is enough of interest going on within a
given space that there is a reason to enter it and
dwell there for a while, e.g., with a mix of textures,
colors, smells, shapes, sizes and spaces
Contemplative Garden
Design Elements: Mystery
The surprises and hidden
features that may be
hinted at but not revealed
unless the visitor actively
seeks them out.
Contemplative Garden
Design Elements: Refuge
The "garden spots" both public and private should
give off a feeling of retreat from the cares of the
world.
Contemplative Food Gardening with
Edible Landscaping
Gardening outside the rows…creatively
for personal inspiration and growth, as
well as physical nourishment and growth
A few tips: • Remember timing, habit, requirements
• Start planning early
• Be creative…think outside the rows!
• Think about combinations
• Don’t be afraid to try something new.
Contemplative Food Gardening Art
http://www.powershow.com/view/ae6a6-YWEyZ/Edible_Landscapes_Gardening_Around_the_House_flash_ppt_presentation
Resouces
• Creasy, R. 2010. Complete Book of Edible
Landscaping. Sierra Club Press.
• Kourik, R. 1986. Designing and Maintaining Your
Edible Landscape Naturally. Metamorphic Press,
Santa Monica, CA.
• Langenheim, J.H. and K.V. Thimann. 1982.
Botany: Plant Biology and Its Relation to Human
Affairs. J.Wiley & Sons, N.Y.
• Messervy, J.M. 1990. Contemplative Gardens.
Howell Press.
• MacCubbin. T. 2000. The Edible Landscape.
Charles B. McFadden Inc
Resources
• Nardozzi, C. Edible Landscaping Primer. National
Gardening Association – see
http://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=edib
leprimer
• Stevens, J.M. 2009. Organic Vegetable
Gardening. UF/IFAS EDIS Publication #CIR375
– see http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh019
• Stevens, J.M. et.al. 2010. Florida Vegetable
Gardening Guide. UF/IFAS EDIS Publication
#SP103 - see http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021
• Worden, E. and S.P.Brown. Edible Landscaping.
UF/IFAS EDIS Publication #ENH971 - see
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep146